


untitled goose fic

by Timic3



Category: Disney Ducks (Comics)
Genre: ...but like unrequited, Cousin Incest, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-15 00:51:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21244805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timic3/pseuds/Timic3
Summary: Gladstone *tries* to solve a problem.





	untitled goose fic

For as long as he could remember, Gladstone Gander never felt like he ever really needed anything. Usually, Lady Luck would provide before Gladstone realized he even wanted something in particular. That, for him, was just natural, as he was a Gander after all, and whatever he wanted, he deserved to obtain.  
This being said, a peculiar problem appeared fairly early in his life. And usually, he didn't even need to think about how to solve problems, because mysterious forces above him would take care of those in his stead. But strangely, for this one thing in particular, Luck never intervened.

This was a problem named Donald Duck.

If Gladstone made the effort to remember as far back as he could, at any point in his life, Donald had been with him. Or rather, he had been with Donald. Gladstone had never really been welcome at Donald's side, even he could tell ; but that had never stopped him from making himself a place here anyways. What was he supposed to do otherwise? Plenty of people entered Donald's life, his kind self welcomed them all, and when some of these people left, he also had a hard time letting them go. That was just how his Donald was: kind of like the sun, many orbited around him and bathed in his warmth.

Naturally, Gladstone felt entitled to take part in that too. It used to be easy - during childhood, Hortense or Daphne or Grandma or anyone really could just say a few carefully picked words, and Donald had to make Gladstone part of their games.

"Be nice."

"You're cousins after all."

And for quite a long while, convenient excuses and maybe a little bit of guilt-tripping were enough for kind Donald to keep Gladstone in his orbit. Oddly enough, not at a place of choice, not as a favorite on par with Fethry or Della (that Gladstone equally loved and envied ; and today, even he was ashamed for ever entertaining the thought that he could ever replace her in Donald's heart.). No, Gladstone did manage to carve a spot for himself in that circle, but it was just as the "relative", the one Donald "had to put up with". He frankly had no idea why he had never been more successful... But thankfully "blood runs thicker than water", Elvira often told Donald, a saying that for years proved itself very, very convenient.  
Quite a disappointing spot that was, but Gladstone cherished it. Who knows, forgetful Lady Luck could one day realize her mistake, and finally give Gladstone what he wanted and deserved after all this time! But for now, he had to make do with being tied to Donald by social obligation alone, and he was well determined to treasure that shallow yet solid bond.

He often wondered why "this" was the one thing Luck never bothered to give him easily. But until very recently, he never really wondered what "this" entailed exactly. Just that he was very, very frustrated he could never obtain it. This wasn't quite about "getting Donald", but rather "being close to Donald"... The rest had been quite blurry in his head, and thus he had preferred to fill it with much more pleasant thoughts, such as thoughts about the nice prizes he would win and the fancy dinners he would surely be invited to very soon. Yes, Gladstone had never been good at figuring out the unpleasant and the complicated. And why would he bother with that? Things were running a bit late for this particular matter, but as with everything else so far, it would solve itself eventually, he believed.

At some point, girlfriends entered Donald's life, and Gladstone thought it would be another issue that would fix itself eventually if he looked away long enough.

It was during that time in their teenage years that Donald started expressing a strange feeling of competitiveness towards Gladstone, who didn't quite get it entirely, and chalked it up to simple dumb jealousy (he was quite the handsome gander, after all!), but he did revel in it. It was probably the first time Donald was giving him this much attention, albeit not very positive, but it was still attention nonetheless, and Gladstone was all too glad to receive it and play along. If Donald wanted competition, he would be more than happy to give it to him.  
So when Donald started seeing girls, Gladstone also took to dating them (why did it only have to be girls, though?), being careful to take them to the better movies, the better restaurants, and giving them the most expensive flowers. It didn't matter who he was with ; it was all new and he was having so much fun, going places in good company and knowing this will get him yet another explosive reaction from Donald very soon.  
Gladstone did finally find his special place in Donald's life, the role that was very exclusive to him ; and even if it was mostly about making his cousin miserable, at least he felt like he was finally getting closer to "this" thing he had greatly wanted for a long time now.

Then came one particular day.

Well, it did seem like a pretty trivial day at first. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, Gladstone received a letter this very morning announcing he somehow got a scholarship to a college with a posh name he once vaguely heard of, and most importantly, that day he went out wearing a new lovely felt hat.  
Gladstone was strolling in Duckburg, always a bit more blissful whenever he caught someone glancing at him. Surely they noticed his new hat, or the particular way he did his hair or tied his bow today. How could they not take a look? He did look good. He looked so good Lady Luck would probably reward him soon by leaving a dollar bill or, better, an abandoned string of pearls on the pavement he was waddling on.  
He had mused about what today had in store for him, but what he found instead was something else completely. When he entered the public park and first saw Donald slumped on a bench, his immediate reaction was to let out a small "wak", then to fix in this order his coat, his bow, his hat and his hair, before walking towards his cousin while reciting his usual spiel:

"Well well well! If it isn't my unfortunate cousin Donald! You're not playing around in the trash with your class buddies, today? You decided to do Daisy a favor and stop embarrassing her? Heh."

He spoke loud and fast. Had he taken his time he would have noticed Donald was initially sitting his head in his hands, and was now looking at him with slightly red eyes. Only now Gladstone noticed his sad, weary look. He kept silent, taken aback and a bit embarrassed.

"It's fine. Even if I embarrass Daisy she doesn't have anything to do with me now, she said."

Admittedly Gladstone wasn't very quick-witted, so he stood there in front of Donald, cocking his head in interrogation.

"She said she thought a lot about her situation, and that maybe we rushed things, and, and that she deserved better."

Ah. Now he got it. But he wasn't quite sure how to react. It meant Gladstone won, no? He won their little competition, and Donald being single was good news for him because... because?  
But seeing him looking like that, with wet eyes, a snotty nose, holding in a tight fist the wrinkled sleeve he had used to wipe his face, Gladstone couldn't help but feel sorry. Not to be mistaken, Donald often looked like he carried all the misery of the world on his shoulders, but this time it felt different. And Gladstone didn't know how to react, or what to say. His role had always been to make things hard for his cousin, not to offer words of support. Normally he should loudly exclaim "Great! That means Daisy is free tonight!" but even he could tell that this time, Donald wouldn't fight back, so such a remark would be pointless.

"Oh."

He sat next to Donald, and tentatively gave his shoulder a light pat. Donald let him. He looked up to give Gladstone a weak, polite smile. Deep down, this made Gladstone happy. But this wasn't the time.

"What are you doing? You know what that means right? You can go get her now. Don't waste your time with me here."

"No, um."

There was an awkward silence. For the first time in forever they weren't acting out their usual routine. Maybe both of them realized that a while ago, they forgot how to communicate outside of snappy remarks and insults.

"Um... Despite all, you're family, so I at least have to be fair to you, right? If you're not feeling well... Then at least for a short bit we can put our competition on hold. I always win but it's not fun if you're not even trying, I mean."

This last sentence sure wasn't needed and Gladstone regretted it even escaped his beak. But Donald replied with another faint smile.

"Are you dumb?" he leaned his head to rest on Gladstone's shoulder. "Thanks."

Gladstone thought back on the Donald Duck Problem. He knew him for all his life but couldn't have predicted that gesture just now. He said nothing, just draped his arm around Donald's back. Was that a hug? Was Donald expecting a hug? Was this weird? He didn't know. They weren't holding tight or anything, but there was an agreement here, a short truce. Gladstone felt a warm sensation in the pit of his stomach, but as enjoyable as it was, it sure wasn't the time. But he couldn't help feeling happy at the closeness the two shared at the moment, he realized. At least, "happy" was the closest word he had to describe the feeling he had right now. It was new, and complicated, but not unpleasant.  
Donald let out a sob or two in his shoulder, but he didn't want to think about that. Gladstone focused on his hand resting on his cousin's back and him not fighting back.  
There was a silence, during which he got a realization. The Donald Duck Problem wasn't completely solved, but he believed he mostly grasped it just now. He also realized this was the one problem in his life he actually could never solve, and that Lady Luck would never help him with it either.  
As warm and fuzzy as he had felt just a moment ago, he understood that all this time, he had actually been standing in front of an impregnable wall.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he finally said.

Gladstone didn't want to talk about it. He didn't care about Daisy and Donald's relationship problems. He figured out what it was that he had wanted all this time now.

**Author's Note:**

> Gladstone... is not really a great person, and mostly he's an oblivious idiot. I originally typed this on my phone to set down some thoughts I had about this horrible goose, and this is what happened. I'm not a writer but I hope this was at least OK to read.


End file.
